Fugitive Ex-Cop Kills Himself During SWAT Standoff in West Park

A six-hour standoff between SWAT officers and a former Cleveland cop ended with Tommie Griffin’s abrupt suicide on West 165th Street yesterday. Griffin, a 23-year veteran Cleveland Division of Police, was under indictment for the rape, kidnapping and felonious assault of his girlfriend.

Griffin was charged earlier this year, and eventually landed house arrest in March. Dozens of firearms, including an Israeli uzi submachine gun, were seized from his home. This past weekend, though, Griffin broke his ankle monitor and fled.

He had been holed up in a North Ridgeville motel before arriving at the home of a friend on West 165th.

“Mr. Griffin put Cleveland police in a very, very bad position,” U.S. Marshal Pete Elliott told Cleveland.com. “It’s not the ending we wanted to see, but it is what it is.” Officers were unable to make contact with Griffin throughout the day’s events.

It’s unclear where Griffin obtained the gun that he used to kill himself; SWAT officers noted that their primary concern was any unexpected gunfire from within the house. Two nearby schools were placed on lockdown during the standoff, which took place in a residential neighborhood just off Lorain Avenue.

This article appears in Oct 25-31, 2017.